$10,000 donation honors late Quincy firefighter

On Tuesday, Lillian Austin and her husband, John, presented Mayor Thomas Koch with a check for $10,000 to be used for fire station improvements. The donation was in honor of their son, John, a Quincy firefighter who died at the West Quincy station on July 8.

At the wake for firefighter John Austin, his mother told Mayor Thomas Koch about his concern about the condition of the city’s eight fire stations.

“He always complained they needed this rehab and that rehab,” his mother, Lillian Austin, said.

On Tuesday, Austin and her husband, also named John, presented Koch with a check for $10,000 to be used for fire station improvements.

“What better way to remember him than to do something he wanted done,” said Lillian Austin. “Hopefully, other people will take the lead and do the same thing.”

In a ceremony at the West Quincy fire station where John Austin served, Koch announced the formation of a committee to look at the condition of the city’s fire stations and recommend improvements.

“I want to come out of this with a real agenda” with recommendations for both short-term and long-term improvements, Koch said.

An 11-year veteran of the fire department, John Austin, 37, died at the West Quincy station on July 8 as he was preparing to respond to a fire call. Prior to joining the fire department, Austin spent four years in the Marine Corps, with service in Bosnia among his assignments.

In addition to his parents and sister, Jane, Austin left behind his fiancée, Kari Brown, and their son, John William, who will celebrate his second birthday next month.

Fire Chief Joseph Barron said “losing a young firefighter and father is extremely traumatic” for the members of the department.

Barron said most of the city’s fire stations were built in the 1930s and ’40s. The newest, the Atlantic fire station in North Quincy, was built in the 1960s.

There is also the problem that newer fire engines and ladder trucks won’t fit through the doors of the stations, he said.

Paul Moody, president of the firefighters’ union local representing Quincy, credited the Koch administration with making improvements in the stations, such as new windows and fixing leaky roofs. But he said more work still needs to be done.

Koch said Lillian Austin will serve on the committee, along with representatives of the city’s public building department, the mayor’s office, city council, fire department administration and firefighters. He said there is no set timetable for the committee to make its recommendation.

And while not a specific part of the committee’s tasks, the committee can look at options such as replacing, expanding or consolidating fire stations, he said.

Koch thanked the family and said the Tuesday’s ceremony was a bittersweet moment.

“We continue to mourn John,” the mayor said.

Lillian Austin thanked firefighters and the community for their support in the wake of her son’s death.

Page 2 of 2 - She said she hopes that when everything is done, her son’s fellow firefighters “have a nice place to come back to at the end of a run.”